ESG Investor’s weekly round-up of news on technology and tools in the sustainable investing sector, including Moody’s ESG Solutions, BlackRock, SDI AOP, MarketAxess, MSCI, Fitch Ratings and Euroclear.
Moody’s ESG Solutions has launched a new platform, ESG360, to provide portfolio managers with ESG analyst-verified scores and modelled ESG and climate intelligence on private and public companies. Moody’s said ESG360 allows portfolio managers to identify ESG leaders and laggards across themes, sectors, and regions, monitor and report on portfolio level performance across a broad range of research lines, and analyse key risk metrics at both the portfolio and entity level. At launch, the platform provides access to Moody’s physical and transition climate risk data sets across a recently expanded universe of 10,000 companies globally. Moody’s plans to add Moody’s ESG insights, including coverage of 300 million public and private companies through a combination of modelled and ESG analyst-verified scores. “To understand the short- and long-term impact of ESG and climate exposures, market participants need a holistic and reliable view of risks and opportunities,” said Andrea Blackman, Global Head of Moody’s ESG Solutions.
Global asset manager BlackRock is to use the SDI AOP dataset, which analyses corporate alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to advise clients on ESG portfolio construction, research, reporting, product creation and evolution. “As investors look to align their portfolios with their sustainable objectives, they are becoming increasingly focused on defining these objectives with specificity, including SDGs,” said Carolyn Weinberg, Global Head of Product, ETF and Index Investments at BlackRock. “The implementation of SDG-aligned investment strategies requires quality data with specific analytical methodologies. We are pleased to strengthen our sustainable product and client offerings with the SDI AOP dataset.” The Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP) was founded in 2020 by asset-owners APG, AustralianSuper, British Colombia Investment Management and PGGM to advance the standard for investing into the SDGs. Qontigo acts as the sales and marketing arm for the data, which contains approximately 8,700 companies. “Such a firm commitment from a global player like BlackRock reflects the growing importance of SDG alignment in the overall responsible-investing landscape,” said James Leaton, Research Director, SDI AOP.
Data, analytics and research services provider MSCI is collaborating with fixed income trading platform MarketAxess to develop portfolio analytics solutions and co-branded fixed income indexes. As part of the arrangement, MarketAxess will leverage MSCI’s ESG ratings to identify and create more liquid and sustainable fixed income portfolios for its global institutional clients. MSCI plans to integrate MarketAxess’ AI-powered pricing and liquidity measures, including Relative Liquidity Score and Tradability, into MSCI’s portfolio construction analytics tools and fixed income indexes. “MSCI’s strategic collaboration with MarketAxess will empower investors with portfolio analytics and index products, in addition to offering them tools and robust datasets in growing areas of interest, namely ESG,” said Henry Fernandez, Chairman and CEO of MSCI.
Fitch Ratings has begun extending its Climate Vulnerability Scores across all corporate sectors globally, having first introduced the scores for the utilities, oil and gas, and chemicals sectors in 2021. The reports provide market participants with a consistent global risk framework that can be used to assess portfolio-level climate vulnerability and inform portfolio transition, said Fitch. The scores are designed to help investors and financial institutions understand the long-term implications of climate-related risks on their investment and lending portfolios, while recognising the varying impact on instruments of differing maturities and providing strategies to manage these risks. Further, the scores capture Fitch’s analytical view of corporate exposure to a rapid low-carbon transition between 2025 and 2050, drawing on the UN Principles for Responsible Investment Inevitable Policy Response Forecast Policy Scenario (IPR FPS), which reflects policy, market and technology trajectories to produce long-term forecasts across eight policy levers.
Pan-European financial market infrastructure provider Euroclear has committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its value chain by no later than 2050 using targets verified by the Science Based Targets initiative. Over the coming months, Euroclear will develop science-based targets aligned with the SBTi criteria for both near term targets and net-zero targets and will submit these for verification to SBTI. “Euroclear has always been committed to limiting the effects of climate change. We have been carbon neutral since 2012, but now is the time to make the additional commitment to net-zero using science-based targets. As part of our overall ESG strategy, this commitment is a key element of our ambition to facilitate and accelerate a sustainable financial system, as demonstrated by our recent investment in Greenomy,” said Group CEO Lieve Mostrey. Euroclear announced its investment in Greenomy, a Belgium-based sustainable finance technology platform, in February.
